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Madame's Nightshirt

Mrs. Peperium

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February 22, 2012:

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Clerical Narcissism and Lent

George Weigel

Since the introduction of the new liturgical texts this past November, I’ve attended Mass in Australia, California, New York, Rome, Washington, and Phoenix, and in none of these venues have I detected any of the calamities confidently predicted by opponents of the new texts. Not only has there been no visible distress over “consubstantial”; the People of God seem to have rather quickly and painlessly adjusted to the changes, so that, three months into the process, it’s a rare “And also with you” that escapes the lips of an unthinking congregant. In fact, most of the people who’ve spoken to me about the changes have applauded them.

Things are not-quite-the-same with priests.

One implicit purpose of the new translations, with their deliberate recovery of a sacral vocabulary and their adoption of a more formal literary rhythm, was to discipline the tendency of priests to turn the Mass into an expression of the celebrant’s personality. The difficulties some priests have had with adjusting to the changes suggests that this tendency was, in fact, a real problem in implementing the reforms of the Second Vatican Council. Prominent Catholic psychologist Paul Vitz once wrote of this as a problem of “clerical narcissism,” and while the phrase undoubtedly stings, there’s something to it—something that needs correcting.

At Mass in the cathedral church of a major American city recently, I ran headlong into the problem in a rather striking way. The celebrant in question seemed not to understand that the invitation to the penitential rite is now prescribed, and not a matter for personal chattiness. Having failed to set up the Missal properly before Mass, he nattered on about his difficulty with “new books” while searching for the Collect of the day. He belted out those parts of the Offertory that the Missal prescribes as being said “quietly.” He rearranged several phrases in Eucharistic Prayer II to his liking. And he prefaced the Prayer after Communion with another voluble commentary on the difficulty of finding the right page.

I’m sure the priest in question is not a wicked or ill-intentioned man; he doubtless imagines that he’s making the Mass more user-friendly by taking liberties with the Missal. But, objectively speaking, he’s a prime example of clerical vanity: a man who imagines that his chirpy personality is the key to what Vatican II called the people’s “full, conscious, and active participation in liturgical celebrations.”

 

February 18, 2012:

 

Belleville Bishop Edward Braxton accepted the resignation of the Rev. William Rowe because the pastor of St. Mary's Catholic Church in Mount Carmel, Ill., 'simply would not and could not pray the prayers of the Mass as they are translated in the new Roman Missal," according to a letter written by the bishop Tuesday.

In a rare letter of explanation for an internal personnel matter, Braxton responded for the first time this week about the incident — which has attracted international media attention and led to a second priest in the Belleville parish to resign a leadership post in protest.

Braxton said in the letter that 'several" parishioners of St. Mary's had brought audio and video evidence to the bishop "which showed the many changes and omissions Fr. Rowe makes in the Mass."

Rowe told the Post-Dispatch this month that he had offered Braxton his resignation last year after a meeting during which the bishop barred Rowe from improvising prayers during Mass. Rowe said that when he prays the Missal — the book of prayers, chants and responses used during the Mass — he tends "to change the words that are written in the book to match what I was talking about" in the homily.

According to Catholic liturgical practice, priests are duty bound to the prayers

"These changes consist of far more than 'a few words,' " Braxton wrote in the letter, which was dated Tuesday and sent to the diocese's priests, deacons, parish life coordinators and the lay leadership at St. Mary's. He said in the letter that he was forced to confront the issue publicly because "a Catholic news outlet" had recently picked up the story.

In an interview Thursday, Rowe called the letter "pure Bishop Braxton."

"He mentioned in the letter that we clash in our ecclesiology — our image of the church," said Rowe, 72, who has been pastor of St. Mary's for 18 years. "He's right. He seems to consider the church as the bishops', and my notion is that the church starts with the people."

After Braxton accepted Rowe's resignation, the Rev. Jim Buerster of St. Boniface Church in Germantown resigned his position as head of the diocese's North Central Deanery.

There has never been an established penalty for improvising nonalterable prayers, and bishops have traditionally looked past an individual priest's extemporizing. But in December, the Vatican mandated that Catholics in every English-speaking country in the world adopt a new translation of the Missal.

Rowe said Braxton had warned him five years ago to stick to the words written in the book. Last June, the bishop sent a letter to the diocese's priests saying: "It will not be acceptable for any priest or any parish to refrain from using the new prayers due to their personal preference."

Rowe said he'd told Braxton in their meeting last October, "That's how I pray," and subsequently offered his resignation. But it was more than three months before he received a letter from Braxton accepting his resignation.

Braxton wrote this week that he had waited "because I held out the hope that upon prayer and reflection, Fr. Rowe would think and act with the Church about this important matter."

Back to George Weigel, Clerical Narcissism and Lent:

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Bad habits built up over decades are as hard to break in liturgy as they are in any other facet of life. So it will take awhile for the nobility of the new Mass texts to elicit a similar nobility of manner from celebrants who have acquired bad habits over the years. But as Lent is an appropriate time for addressing bad habits, here’s a suggestion for all priest-celebrants: make a Lenten resolution—This Lent, I will do the red and read the black. Period.

In the Missal, rubrical instructions are in red; the words to be spoken by the celebrant are in black. Priests who simply “do the red and read the black” for the six weeks of Lent will have gone a long way toward breaking bad habits that have become default positions. They will also, I predict, garner a lot of thanks from their congregants, most of whom are quite uninterested in celebrants acting like talk-show hosts.

The point, as always, is not liturgical prissiness. The point is to celebrate the sacred liturgy so that it’s experienced as the participation in the heavenly liturgy that it is.

 

 

Come gather 'round people
Wherever you roam
And admit that the waters
Around you have grown
And accept it that soon
You'll be drenched to the bone
If your time to you
Is worth savin'
Then you better start swimmin'
Or you'll sink like a stone
For the times they are a-changin'.

Come writers and critics
Who prophesize with your pen
And keep your eyes wide
The chance won't come again
And don't speak too soon
For the wheel's still in spin
And there's no tellin' who
That it's namin'
For the loser now
Will be later to win
For the times they are a-changin'.

Come senators, congressmen
Please heed the call
Don't stand in the doorway
Don't block up the hall
For he that gets hurt
Will be he who has stalled
There's a battle outside
And it is ragin'
It'll soon shake your windows
And rattle your walls
For the times they are a-changin'.

Come mothers and fathers
Throughout the land
And don't criticize
What you can't understand
Your sons and your daughters
Are beyond your command
Your old road is
Rapidly agin'
Please get out of the new one
If you can't lend your hand
For the times they are a-changin'.

The line it is drawn
The curse it is cast
The slow one now
Will later be fast
As the present now
Will later be past
The order is
Rapidly fadin'
And the first one now
Will later be last
For the times they are a-changin'.

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Comments

[The Ancient]

At the neighborhood Jesuit church, the priests are pretty much by the book.

The only thing they do now that discerts me -- and they all do it -- is to stand in front of the altar for the homily. (Previously, the homily was given at the same lectern used by the readers.)

Since they're miked (the wages of technology!), they're free to do lots of things with their hands (and of course they do), and to walk one way or another (which they do or don't depending on how old they are).

If this were an auction to raise money for the parish, I wouldn't think a thing about it. But as it's a homily ostensibly keyed to the readings we've just heard, I find it terribly distracting. For one thing, no one has any notes -- so they are either extemporzing on a very small theme, or relying on their memory (which is always unwise), or trusting too much in their charm (which varies).

With very few exceptions, this seems to bring out the inner car salesman lurking in every priestly breast. It's seriously degraded the level of the average homily, and brought "the cult of personality" into full and unseemly display.

[The Ancient]

I meant "disconcerts," of course.

(You try typing with the stub of a pencil held by toothless gums in the light of a sputtering candle. It's not as easy as it sounds!)

[Dan Patterson]

The conceit of the pulpit is found in every other version of worship I have attended, and it is often very strongly applauded by the older female congregants. See "The Apostle" for a cinematic example or two. The attempt seems to be to strengthen the bond between church leadership and membership, but for willful and stubborn fools like me the effect is to increase the distance between us.

[Mrs. P]

It's wise to be by the book as a Catholic priest since you sign papers in front of your assembled congregation with at least your Bishop present, if not a few others. The papers you sign say you will be faithful to the teachings of the Church and if not, you can be removed.

I once heard a Call To Action priest -someone mistakenly invited me to his bible study not understanding I am a follower of the Call to Holiness message of Vatican II - say he placed his chair in front of the Tabernacle at Mass because people kept looking at it during Mass and that was wrong. Considering the other words of wisdom that came from that Call to Action priest that day the people looking at the Tabernacle during Mass were probably seeking consolation and strength.

Conceit in every walk of life is real. For this priest, his has gone too far.